My own career...
Had, um, a couple of things gone just slightly different
None of this maybe here, you know
(What was that?) Um
Let's see, well, back when I was, I was leavin'- I'd left RCA- I went to Joe and, and
We were such great friends, Joe Galante was the president of RCA and
And we tried for six or seven years, I just went to him, I said, "Man
Would you just let me out?"
I said, "It's not working, you're frustrated, I'm frustrated
And let's just go, let's go try something else and
Let me, let me, let me go", and he begrudgingly did
He said, "I don't want to", he said, "But I will, I believe in you" and he always did
And so then I went- I didn't go shop much
I had two people that were interested in what I did
One was Warner Brothers, a guy named Nick Hunter who's no longer here
And he liked me 'cause I was a good softball player, hahaha
And I played on his Warner Brothers' softball team
And was a great outfielder with a good arm who could hit it and take it out, you know and
And so he was crazy about me and he's, "Man, I, I'd sign you over here in a heartbeat. I'd love to work with you" and
And, but he was the only one at Warner Brothers at the time that was interested
I went ahead and had a meeting with the head of the company, he goes, "Ahh
I just don't hear it, I hear all this stuff about you and
And you know, you're this and you're that but I, I just don't hear it and
I don't know, and in our staff, they're not that
That pumped up about it", he said, "I'd sign you because Nick wants to"
But, but I, you know, I didn't like hearing that
So I said, "Well, this is not gonna, this ain't gonna, haha, this ain't gonna be where
Where I land and then Tony
Uh, who signed me to RCA along with Joe in '83, was at MCA
And he's in-in- and I went to see him and he goes, "Yeah, of course, I'd, I'd love to have you", so
That made the most sense and he was gonna produce my record and
Ah, we were all set for
To start on a Monday with "When I Call Your Name", that's all that had been written
Um, players booked, studio booked, everything, we're gonna start that record
And around that same time, I had turned
I think, I had turned down the Dire Straits gig
I got offer to Dire Straits gig to play in that band with Mark
And I just said, "Man, I think, I'm gonna get a new shot"
And I said, "I gotta, I gotta believe in myself, I can't bail"
Said, "If I quit now, I may never go back to country music and
And I just, if I quit on me then, you know
Who else is gonna believe in me", you know, so I turned that down
And then the Friday, before I'm starting this record with Tony
He called me, he said, "Man, I can't believe
I can't believe I'm calling you but I might leave the company"
I said, "What do you mean?", he said, "Well
I just found out that Jimmy Bowen's coming back to run the label"
And Bowen didn't like me
And he told Tony, he says, "The first thing I'm gonna do
When I come back is, I'm dropping Vince Gill
That's the stupidest signing you could have ever made" and
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
So Tony says, "If he comes back, I'm not staying"
And he said, "I can't leave you twice", you know
So he goes to, he went to New York and played hard ball, said, "Look
You choose him or you choose me", you know
And they said, "Okay, we'll roll with you, we'll go with you, we won't bring Bowen back"
'Cause I knew that Bowen would- the first thing he was gonna do was run me off, so
If that would have happened
I'd have never recorded "When I Call You Name", I'd have never been on MCA records
On and on and on
So, just like- you never know